1. Field
The present invention relates generally to rendering media content on a computer system, and, more specifically, to providing dedications by way of a network.
2. Description
The use of media player applications for personal computers (PCs) and other digital devices has become widespread. Many different player applications are offered by software developers. The player applications are typically available for download from a network such as the Internet, often at no cost. One widely used player application is an audio player that renders digital audio files for listening by a user. Several different digital audio data formats are in common use, with the most common being the Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) audio layer 3 or “MP3” format. When digital audio data is stored in a file in the well-known MP3 format, the file may be easily moved, copied, transferred, or rendered by operating system or player application software. Of course, media player applications may also render video and other forms of content as well. While the discussion of media players herein may in some cases specify audio players, it should be appreciated that the topics may apply to video and other forms of media content as well.
Users are experienced in using audio player applications to build play lists of their favorite music. Play lists are a feature of many of the available audio player applications. A user typically constructs a play list of multiple units of audio content (e.g., music files) obtained from a variety of sources. Collectively, the content of the play list may be referred to as a “program”. The individual units of content which make up the play list may be referred to as “segments” of the play list.
When the audio player application is operating according to a play list, the user may experience a successive stream of songs listed in the play list. However, once the user initiates operation of the audio player according to the play list, manual intervention by the user may be involved in order to interleave additional content with the content specified in the play list. There is typically no convenient manner by which another person may modify the user's play list, for example, to interleave a dedication. As used herein, “dedication” refers to any media content specified by a party other than the user experiencing the content. In one sense, network-based dedications are similar to the familiar radio dedications in which a friend or family member contacts the radio station and requests that a particular song “go out to X”, where X is a listener of the radio station.
Thus, there are opportunities for providing additional capabilities in digital audio applications that overcome these and other limitations of the prior art.